How do I prevent ID thieves from stealing my personal information over the internet?

In addition to the obvious...the use of good anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall programs...which is of course a must. You should:

1. Keep Windows and all you other installed software always updated with the latest critical updates. Most malware attacks known vulnerabilities in software and updates patch these "holes".

You cannot depend on anti-virus programs alone to keep keyloggers and other programs designed to compromise your data off of your machine.

The Secunia Software Inspector checks for possibly vulnerable programs like Windows, Adobe, Winamp, Java etc. and notifies if critical security updates are needed. Takes about 30 seconds.

Will work using IE, Opera or Firefox.

Free at:
http://secunia.com/software_inspector

2. Limit physical access to your computer, password protect not only your Windows account but your entire computer. Go into your computer's BIOS and add a second different password that must be used to simply turn-on your computer.

Change all your passwords to a strong ones . A strong password MUST have at least 10 characters, using upper and lower case letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. Do not use any real words, especially easy-to-guess words like love, password, or the name of your wife! Do not use your cat's name.

Do not use the name "JonasBros" or "Miley", those are the first one that hacker will try!

3. If you are using a wireless router...encrypt it. WEP is much to0 easy to crack. Use WPA and set your router to not broadcast your SSID.

4. If you are using Limewire or some other P2P program to steal music, movies and software, be aware, that network is filled with malware. Even the best anti-virus program cannot protect you against new malware for up to a week or more after it is released. And there are about 1200 new malware variants released each and every day....many of them on P2P networks.

Don't infect yourself!


Good luck

Yes they out there. This what Phishing emails are trying to get sometimes.

First of all when you send personal information, make sure the site has https:// in it. What this does is encrypt the information sent across the internet. Next, make sure you have no spyware, especially keyloggers. These log what you type and e-mail your info to the person that put it on there. Get a good antispyware (I highly recommend Webroot Spy Sweeper). It's not free (costs 50) but you can get a free trial. Also, get Desktop Firewall (It's free for now). Disable telnet and ftp. Depending on the experience of the person, they could use telnet to logon to your computer, and ftp (which stands for File Transfer Protocol. File Transfer Protocol is used to send files from one computer to another. If you want to try it and see what it does, go to
start->run->type in cmd
Open two of them.
Type in ftp in the first one.
Nest enter
open ftp.microsoft.com
username:anonymous
password: just use an email account, any one.
Next, type in dir
Next, type in cd bussys
Next, type in dir
Next, type in ascii
Next, type in get readme.txt (The directory to your desktop)
You should see a text file on your computer.

For telnet, go to the second command prompt. Enter in telnet.
Enter in o www.w3schools.com 80
You will be connected to w3schools.com
Next, enter in GET js/default.asp
You will see a whole bunch of nonsense. This is what programmers call source code. It is the code that makes up a web page that you and I are so familiar with. you won't actually see what you are typing when you are typing so that is normal.

After seeing the power of the command prompt, block ftp.exe and telnet.exe.

If the data is not encrypted. someone can get it. Free encryption of those files is possible with http://www.cypherix.com/cryptainerle_o/index.htm?adv=ovt&OVRAW=cypherix&OVKEY=cypherix&OVMTC=standard&OVADID=1117122022&OVKWID=8155112022
It is always better to use copy and paste to enter data. If the data must be type type out of sequence. For instance if your credit number is12345678, type 5678, then move the before the "5" and now type1234. File encryption and out of sequence data entry will go a long way of protecting your privacy

Well, i would first suggest to use a good antivirus. Use ESET or Kaspersky. But DO NOT USE AVG.

Get to know if your IP is static or dynamic. If it is static, then just make your homepage proxytheweb.com and surf everything from there.
Also use Mozilla firefox and disable the option to download AcitveX controls from other sites.

I think that should be enough

Probably the easies place to get it is from your machine. Other companies that store is spend more on security (making sure people can't hack it) then you do on your home system.

But even that shouldn't be a problem unless you are download dumb stuff that you don't know where it came from. Or visiting websites that aren't secure.

Really thats all you can do! You could add a firewall to your computer.